


Be Careful Making Tea In The Woods

by rdm2



Series: My fics for Febuwump 2021 [11]
Category: Wiedźmin | The Witcher - All Media Types
Genre: Accidental Drug Use, M/M, Nightmares, Zombies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-15
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-16 08:22:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,131
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29450724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rdm2/pseuds/rdm2
Relationships: Iorveth/Letho
Series: My fics for Febuwump 2021 [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2138412
Kudos: 5





	Be Careful Making Tea In The Woods

Letho knelt by the river catching a drink of water while he hunted for his dinner. He had been tracking an elk for some time now and was ready to eat. It was a big thing and would keep him well fed.

He stood up, wiped his mouth and was about to continue following the tracks, when a pained scream ripped through the air.

He frowned and rolled his eyes, walking over to where he heard the voice. "Hey elf you need a hand?" He stopped short in confusion at the scene in front of him.

Iorveth was curled in a ball underneath a bush whimpering eyes frantically darting around.

"No! Stay away!" 

Letho scanned the area around him, looking for something that could give him an answer to the elf's behavior, but all he could see was a small fire where it looked like the elf had been making tea. Although he wandered over to the tea and took a better sniff at it.

"Would have thought elves would be better at recognizing their plants."

"No, no, no, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, please no, I."

He shook his head scooping up the elf, who was too out of it to notice. Guess the elk will have to wait.  
\---  
Iorveth held eye contact with Isengrim silently pleading for him to help him. Isengrim turns his face away and flees. Iorveth shouts out screaming, pleading, for him to come back. 

His hair is yanked back and he is forced to stare back into the widely grinning face of a Cintrian soldier. He is thrown back onto the ground and spit on as the soldiers around him laugh, appearing as wavering ten foot shadows, the sound fills his ears from all sides. He snarls and tries to get up, though the bindings on his hands and feet hampered his attempt. He finally managed to stand and he threw himself at the soldier biting down hard on his cheek nearly ripping his face off, it rots in his mouth. 

He lets go with a yelp as one of the other soldiers kicks out his legs, and grabs his bound arms pulling him backwards. The soldier he had bit fell to the ground as the second one dragged him closer to the cliff's edge by his hair. Iorveth fought and screamed as his hair was almost pulled out, cursing the soldiers, their families, Cintra, the treaty, Nilfgaard, anything he could think of. The soldier only stares down at him with glowing red eyes, the only feature on an otherwise blank face.

He tries to stand and fight again when the empty space on the soldier's face splits open revealing an unnaturally wide grin, as the soldier stabs him with the spear he had in his other hand, causing him to lose his balance and fall off the cliff.

He falls for what feels like years before landing on a pile of corpses. He stares into the decayed face of his best friend and screams glancing around at his childhood bedroom, it was filled with the corpses of everyone he had ever known. He trips over the body of his mother as he tries to flee from the Termarian soldiers that were hunting him. Praying to every god he knows he gets up and runs trying to find a spot to hide.

He freezes in horror as he was confronted by the bodies of those who had died under his command, as they reached from him where they lay on the ground.

"No! Stay away!" He turns to run the other way only to see his family's corpses stumbling out of his room, his sister holding her decapitated infant to her chest leading them. She raises her other hand and points at him

"All your fault."

"No, no, no." He spins around searching for a way to escape. He was trapped between the two groups as the walls also began to close him in threatening to squish him between them. He could hear dh'oine shouting in the background their footsteps getting closer.

"Yes, all your fault." His brother's earless corpse drops his jaw as it rots off. His brother ignores this as he steps on it creeping closer. "Why Iorveth? Why didn't you save us?"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he covers his ears falling down on the floor soaking his legs in a river of blood. 

The elf who first welcomed him into the Scoia'tael stares at him eyelessly. A spider crawls out of the empty holes. "Our blood is on your hands little fox. Why did you kill us?"

"Please no, I." He stared at his blood covered hands weeping as the corpses covered him burying him under them grasping at his body trying to tear him apart. 

He stares down at his mother who is holding his neck and squeezing his neck tight. "Oh my foolish mad child. Did you not realize this would be your end? Is this not what you deserve my bloodstained one?" She lets go with one of her hands and examines his empty socket streaking blood all over his tear-stained face. He whimpered, feeling nauseous at the touch.

He felt as though he was burning, they must be burning the city he thinks, wondering if the flames will reach him before he suffocates. He stares up at the empty sky as it fills with smoke and waits to die.  
\---  
Letho watched as Iorveth tossed and turned where he had laid him by the fire. Eventually his breathing calmed down and seemed to fall asleep. He shifted the blanket on him as he went over to adjust the rabbits he was having for dinner again, instead of the elk. They were almost done.

He quietly watched the elf. Suddenly Iorveth gasped and sat straight up, tense as his bowstring as he frantically scanned the room.

"You're safe. Want some rabbit?"

Iorveth stared at him, "yes? His voice is horse. 

Letho hands him one of the rabbits and watches as Iorveth tears into it.

"Would have thought elves knew plants?"

"What do you mean?"

"Unless you were trying to drug yourself out in the open. Nasty trip you had there."

Iorveth winced and looked away, a scowl forming on his face. He set the skewer off to the side and looked away. He smelled like grief, old grief.

"Hey elf?" Iorveth looked back at him, "come here."

His elf hesitantly stood and walked over to him crawling into his side. Letho slowly removed his bandanna. When Iorveth let him he ran his fingers through his elf's hair. Iorveth gave a quiet sigh and turned his face into Letho's side. He rubbed Iorveth's ear and felt him shiver against him. 

"I don't wanna talk about it."

"That's fine, just rest."

"Thank you."


End file.
